This invention relates generally to a farm implement, more specifically, to an improvement in the construction of the gauge wheel assembly of a soil tillage implement.
Soil tillage implements are well known to the art. For example, various configurations of ploughs have been known for centuries. Basically, a plough consists of a triangular beam or frame that is removably connected to a power source, such as a horse (as in the pioneer days) or tractor that pulls the device through the field or soil that is to be ploughed or cultivated. Connected to and depending from the frame are generally a series of furrowing elements designed to cut into the ground and till the soil. The furrowing elements generally are comprised of a plough share, which is the blade-like element that slices into the soil and is usually formed on the tip of a mouldboard, a broader, curved blade-like member behind the share that lifts and turns the soil or pushes the soil to one side so as to create the furrow. In front of each share is the coulter or knife, most often a disc-shaped knife disposed to cut a vertical slit in the soil ahead of the share and mouldboard to facilitate the movement of the plough share through the soil.
In use, the frame of the implement is generally balanced or supported by one or more adjustable ground wheels. The ground wheels, also known as gauge wheels, extend downward from the frame from a shank that can be adjusted, i.e, lengthened or shortened, to vary the height of the implement from the ground and thereby vary the depth which the coulters and plough shares cut into the soil.
With prior art implements, there is no easy or convenient way to adjust the length of the shaft of the gauge wheel. For example, the gauge wheels are quite heavy and nearly impossible for one farmer to adjust alone. It usually takes two workers to adjust them. When a wheel shank is released from the frame, the wheel drops down under its own weight. One worker has to hold the wheel in place and attempt to align holes in the wheel shank and with holes in the frame while the other worker inserts the adjustment pin through the holes to lock the wheel in the desired position.